Personally, I am not in favor of Google dominating everything "Internet." I think we give these guys too much power and it will eventually come back to bite us. There seems to be too much Google worship going around. The entire Internet is at their mercy for "search engine stuff." Whether it be Adsense, Adwords, indexing, positioning, etc. it's all about what Google thinks, says, does, etc.

Giving one company too much power is never a good thing. But in all fairness, Google IS the game at the moment and we're active spectators of their growth and Internet monopolistic dominance.

As for MS and the Google challenge. At the rate MS is going, there is NO challenge. The lawsuit might prevent others from defecting. MS seems to act like an old dinossaur. They need to be more aggressive and hire some talent if they want to stay competitive or beat Google at their own game.

Besides, Google seems to offer a more challenging work environment. Their stock prices are incredible and they give that delightful sense of "we're not done growing yet!" They're also incredibly innovative and have done a great deal of good in terms of search engine engineering.

Plus there must be a lot of prestige in saying "I work for Google!" and of course, you can become a multi-millionaire as a shareholder employee.

The benefits and glamour are tempting. All I want to know is this: Did the doctor approach Google for a job or was he offered a job while working for MS?
There seems to be an ethical problem here whether the "job" was sought after or offered, don't you think?

I realize ethics is not enforceable nowadays and when it comes to money, it can be quickly devaluated. If it were me doing the hiring, I'd extend the non-compete clause to 5 years minimum, not 6 months. 6-12 months is not a very smart clause.

I am not sure if there is a legality that imposes a maximum 12-month non-compete clause. I believe that would be up to the employer/employee to agree on. If you're working for someone, it's unethical to be looking for a job with your employer's competitor.

If you are the competition, it's unethical to be soliciting an employee from your competitor. If everyone did this, the entire work environment would be a mass of lawsuits. Employees and employers "doing evil" at least from an ethical point of view.